John Smith

I was born in 1962 11 October in Bournemouth England I travelled around England with my family as my dad was a fire officer I ended up in the north east of England in Redcar where I grew up I ended up. I found my self working in a scrap yard at the age of 17 and realised that I should have done something at school I applied to Art College as it was the only thing I could think of at the time I was desperate to do something else I managed to get on a course by sheer luck there I met some really inspiring teachers who were interested in art Ideas and rebelling against anything I spent 3 years working there before applying to Liverpool to do printed textiles. That was probably not a good choice but it gave me structure and I started to learn a lot of things from some really interesting people it was the time of Margaret Thatcher marches protests and struggle but is was a time when people stood up and fought and argued. now everyone has mortgages and responsibilities that mean no one has the time to care about anyone else and politics has been removed from peoples lives by making it so tedious that it seems to have no meaning. I did well at college and produced a lot of work some good mostly bad I left to move to London and a job as a textile printer that was good but a little crazy as I was freelancing selling textile designs through an agent it was a good place to work although the work was hard I got to meet lots of people who were working in the textile industry. I stuck it out for a year which was all I could stand and then I moved all the way to Anglesey in an attempt to get away from it all. Not sure what I was trying to get away from really. I spent a lot of time raising chickens pigs ducks and then eating them all the time I was painting and drawing but without any idea of selling them. I eventually got some part time teaching jobs and they developed into full time jobs as did my kids as they grew up I painted I got into animation and film but drawing has always been my first and only love. I draw now with no idea of what I want or why I do them it has taken a lot of time to get to this stage like a child that just draws because they like the pencil against the paper or paint splosing about I am happy with that.